Saturday, January 3, 2009

Forefeast of the Nativity

I apologize for being away for so long. Busy-ness with school ended around the 15th, just in time for Christmas and end of year work busy-ness. I really tried to pare down our holiday plans to avoid major stress. But it didn't work :( This was probably the worst Christmas I have ever had in my life.

But, thankfully, I have my Nativity on the Old Calendar coming up next week! I really like having extended family Christmas separate from Church feast Nativity. There are some things I that I miss about being on the New Calendar, but Christmas on 12/25 with the rest of America is not one of them. Divine Liturgy, the hymns, breaking the fast with parish family and everything else will be very nice, Lord willing.

And happy civil new year! I love making New Year's resolutions. It is actually one of my favorite things to do. And I will share one of them here. I have resolved to return to full time covering when outdoors as a firm commitment. This may seem strange since I have been covering this way de facto for the last 6 months or so. But in my heart, I wasn't committed to doing it everyday. Now, I am at a place where I want to keep my hair private from now on. Before, I was getting up in the morning and deciding whether to cover or not; now I have accepted that I don't really want people to see my hair any more than other parts of my body that are deserving of special modesty. The only exception might be a bit of side fringe, bang or ends of my hair showing out of coverings at times.

This is exciting. Despite the fact that I am posting this on the internet :) I have also decided not make any big pronouncements to the people in my life about this. They have seen me cover off and on for years. Now it will just be more on than off.

May God give me the grace and strength to answer this call in a way that brings me closer to Him and makes the living sacrifice of my body more holy and pleasing to Him. Amen.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~photo caption: Young Orthodox matrons at market, kerchief on woman at right is for partial concealment of face...Village: OhridDate: 1962http://www.library.umass.edu/spcoll/galleries/halpern29.htm

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About Me

I am a peace loving Orthodox Christian devoted to the principles of social justice. I believe in God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit; simple essence and unity, worshipped forever. I honor the most holy, most pure, most-blessed and glorious Lady Theotokos and ever-Virgin Mary, with all the saints. I believe that salvation, conversion and the renewing of the mind is an ongoing process that involves my being (mind, soul and body), my family, my community and the world. I believe that every one of us and everything is connected. I accept that my path to becoming fully human includes struggle in general, bouts of veg*nism, a desire to cover my head along with the majority of my body, visits to monasteries and radically caring for my fellow humans and the earth. I advocate for the right to dignity of human beings with a special focus on women and people of color. That’s it in a nutshell.